property manager

district manager

customer service representative

administrative assistant

relief manager

Public-Storage

The company is going through a growth period of change under a newer CEO. Most all of the changes have been an improvement. There’s still an internal struggle around compensation and retention. You have to relax into the idea that you will have to close stores due to lack of staffing- an idea that was certainly new for me. Add that to the struggle that old guard has with actually showing those closures- you will manage a lot to reports. Prepare to move things around a lot to make the reports look less awful. RMs bonus in stores being open- you will move people around constantly in any given day to make sure a store has someone clocked-in just so the store open report shows a headcount for the day. You will manage to this daily instead of addressing the core issue- there is a staffing crisis that no one wants to acknowledge. This is your daily reality.

Within this past year, the company has rolled out an internal development path, but there’s very limited opportunity as the turnover rate in DM and RM positions is low. PMs make a non-competitive rate, and they make even less if they use on-site housing- their pay is reduced to off-set the housing. Depending on what city you live in, this can still be a wonderful benefit. Still, the wage is not a liveable wage. Property Manager turnover is very high. The company does not have a dedicated response to that turnover. Instead, they have spent money hiring people to put bandaids on the problem. It is t their fault. They are handcuffed because the company won’t make real financial investments in pay. The PM bonus plan is not competitive. The bonus plan is also not consistently fair. 

District Managers have the largest workload in the Management hierarchy. It’s not that the work is difficult- most of it is data entry. The difference is that you are doing admin everyday, and coaching your team is very minimal. It is expected that as a DM that you will never be caught up. That is by design. Recently, the company has begun Time & Motion reassessment to better distribute the work load, but it mostly falls to the DM team as of now.  That is not a complaint. It’s just a part of the role for now. As a result, DMs have a lot of job security. They literally cannot operate without District Managers. It is the role that has the most job security. That also means that you are keeping some C-players for an extended period of time. There are no annual performance reviews. You literally have to steal or lie to lose this job. Even then, it takes a long time to move through those bad performers bc accountability is missing at all levels. 

You will be micromanaged. DMs do not have control of budget or P&L. It takes an act of god to get any expense approved for properties. As a result, stores often do not have what they need to operate at full potential. Again, this is by design. PS has always operated this way, and it’s the old “if it ain’t broken…” line. The company operates very, very lean. You get used to it, and you have to relax-into that it won’t be changing any time soon. 

It’s an interesting time in the company. It is trying to change its internal operations to be more competitive and to attract better talent; however, PS has no intention of paying what is needed to attract that talent. The most lucrative reason to join is that you have an opportunity to be part of building the new pathway forward. The company definitely embraces its group mindshare, and you will have opportunities to be a part of that if you want- there is no compensation for that work though. You can be a rockstar t operator and have the best metrics and best team, but you will make the exact same pay as the worst operator. 

There’s a Senior District Manager role that is a steppingstone to Regional Manager… the pay is the exact same as it is for the District Manager role. There is no increase. Just the promise that “someday” you may be a RM. The problem is that RM’s only retire or die. That’s the only way you’re getting promoted. 

Diversity has not been a priority until recently. The company has been a “good ole boys” club up and until the past five years. There is only one woman at the Divisional Level. Again, this isn’t a complaint, it’s just the reality. The company has only recently made strides to diversify its workforce. It’s my opinion that positive change has a lot to do with our CEO Joe Russell- he’s been a champion for change.

I have a positive outlook for where we are ‘growing’. The company is now asking for employee feedback. That’s a huge first step. Just don’t expect that it’s doing anything much with that feedback- as of right now. It feels like positive changes are coming. The changes needed require financial investments into people, and the company isn’t quite ready to make those changes. We will see. This isn’t just PS, though. The whole country is trying to find its balance after a series of setbacks. 

If I could rate this company -100000 I would . This is the first time I have ever left a review for a company I have worked for. I feel like it's important for other people to know what they are getting themselves into . Public Storage is a money hungry company. They do not care anything about their employees. This is a billion dollar company and only pay u 10.50 a hour . If u choose to get a apartment with them u get 8.50 a hour . If you are a relief manager u have to travel pretty much every day to different properties . Now if u are working with a property manager it's a high chance that your district manager could call u to travel to another property. If somebody has called out and u are a relief manager the district manager will ask u or another relief manager to go to that property . This company is 2 cheap to allow to people to work together . I can't even describe the amount of work that is done . I worked for the company for 2 years and 1 month and I highly regret it . Once I became a property manager it was 100 times worse . You have to open the store , handle cash , check , credit debit card payments , collection calls , cleaning the office and bathroom . You also have to check the property twice a day clean units do monthly auctions with your district manager . You also have to do a monthly unit inventory which pretty much means u have to print out a list for all the units and the information have to match the paper . Also do a merchandise inventory, counting all the merchandise , and a unit audit . A unit audit just means everything that is wrong with the property has to be put in the system . Let's not forget u have to sell none stop ! Locks Insurance boxes . This company wants u to sell non stop . Let's not forget renting units to customers and using 1000 scripts a day . You also have coaching with your district manager . You do weekly calls as a disctrict and have to explain why u could not sell a lock , or insurance or merchandise . What objectives did u use for the customer . Guys I'm telling u this company is awful . Anytime u have to call out sick or can't come in they make u feel bad . Like things happen and it's not right . This company makes u work like a slave and the pay is horrible . Other company's pay at least 13 or 14 a hour and ps still pays only 10.50 . It's so much to this company that I wish I could right a book about it . I will never recommend this place to anybody . You work by yourself 24 7 their is no help on the property . It's so hard to gain hours so u can have PTO off , they only focus on your sick time off which is pti. Even with u have sick time to use it's still a problem. I will just stop here because I could go on and on . Moral of the story is this company does not care about u it's all about the $$$ long as u slave and work than you will be just fine . Good luck guys ! Do your research before u apply .I am just trying to help others and tell them the truth . Worst company ever! They have also taken away bonuses ,unlike other company's. You get 100 dollars a year for Christmas that's it .hate this place

Sell, sell, sell. You are a robot guided by an app that keeps track of everything you do. You have about 10-15 minutes to grab every call and once a customer is in the system, stay on them with repeated sales calls to make sure they come in. When they come in, sell, sell, sell. Sell them insurance that is really Public Storage that won’t pay a dime if anything happens. Don’t get friendly with anyone because you will feel terrible when they lose their storage. This company makes you think that everyone is great and you will be part of a team, but, truth be told, the only people that benefit are Corporate and District Managers on up. The grunts on the playing field don’t matter and they will always push push push you to sell more and more. Be a good robot and work. Don’t be too clever. Don’t make it hard for Management by trying to help the customer, no matter what Training says. Most of your time will be making or taking calls from the app on your screen. Then you will be cleaning a lot in addition to walking the entire lot at least three times daily. You get a 30-min lunch break. Also, don’t get the insurance. Just get the Obamacare for yourself, by yourself because they charge twice what Obamacare charges and then they go and get Obamacare at a huge discount that they keep and charge you more. Good luck getting raises or advancement. Miserable job. They pay so little for all you do that you are better off doing something else. If you decide to leave, they are not nice about it. Instead, they will never give you a reference. Oh! And here is what you should know: they track you aggressively through your phone and monitor your entire life…even if you are not working for them. They track your purchases, locations, photos, emails, etc. It is ridiculous. Customers will always think you are ripping them off and most people forget what they have or don’t have, so encourage them to do inventory and take photos that they keep. Tell them they can say they are insuring through their own private insurance. No proof is required. They also should not put emergency contacts because they will make you call everyone on the account for payments due. No, you cannot listen to your own music. Ask them to pay you for having to use your phone all day or tell them you don’t have a cellphone. They will act like you have to use it but won’t bother paying you for it. Be smart and tell them you cannot afford coverage and just have the basic phone answering and calling. You will thank me later. Watch out for those sharp doors made from sheet metal. Watch out for mice. It’s a breeding ground for them. Don’t stay late…they will act like it’s okay for good customer service but get angry at you for causing overtime. Lamest place I ever worked. Boring. Don’t take one thing even if customer left behind—they will always treat you badly if you do and act suspicious. Never lift anything for customers, never go in their storage. 

First and foremost, your experience will vary depending on what district you're assigned to. I found out early on that the mine was a revolving door, and we were constantly short staffed. Once you complete the 10-14 day training they start sending you various properties and you will be by yourself the whole time (they said this was a covid-19 precaution, but even then we were so short staffed that we didn't have enough employees have 1 person at all locations each day). The pay is low, the insurance is expensive with a high deductible, and the only real bonus is a month performance contest. There are no opportunities for advancement past "key training personnel", and there is no pay raise when you go from relief to property manager despite the increased responsibilities. If you're district has any properties with vermin, or have homeless people hanging around, be prepared to have to pick up dead animals, used needles, and even human feces. You are not given special PPE for this, and usually just have to use the same broom/dustpan you use for the rest of the property. That ALONE makes the job not worth the pay. Management is apathetic at best, condescending at worst. One new hire quit less than a month in after the regional manager made some racist implications to her. There is no guarantee that any work orders or maintenance request will be fixed, even if it's a major safety issue (I don't even remember how many different request I filed about leaking roofs and broken glass). Thankfully my coworkers were at least pleasant, my trainer was helpful, and the customers were for the most part fine. There are plenty of "Karens" but they mainly show up if they're behind on their rent or their rent increased. Once you're familiar with each property you work at most days are fairly easy with some downtime, but due to the constant employee shortage if someone called out the day prior (or there was nobody scheduled there at all) you will have to cram multiple days worth of work into the one. This is made even worse during the busy seasons, getting so bad that I suffered 3 panic attacks in a week and a half. Scheduling is a nightmare. You're schedule varies constantly, it's common to have your days off be non-consecutive, and it's not unheard of to be scheduled for 10 days straight due to how they do your days off. Thankfully the hours each day are the same, so you'll at least be off at a reasonable hour each day. Overall this job is fine if you're part time, still live with parents, or are desperate. However if you're looking for a career with mobility, management that values input, or want to make enough to cover rent & food each month, look elsewhere.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is absolutely nothing beneficial about working for a company that does not appreciate their customers, let alone their employees. The first 2.5 yrs working there were great. Upper management and district managers at the time made working there fun and it seemed all sunshine and rainbows. Having spent the additional years wasting my time trying to give the company chances and still trying to get a different job at the same time, felt like a hot oven. Management continued to make changes and of course employees have to adapt. Certain issues began to be addressed by a hotline instead of having customers being able to speak to someone who can actually help. Hence, you don’t really get helped nor are you able to help customers 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You are absolutely not helped by your managers or upper management. You are told to help customers, being rapport, collect payments, collect payments, collect revenue, collect, make calls, improve show up and delinquency; etc etc. the list of things that the company wants from you vs what they can do for you is unmatched. This company will only keep you if you’re beneficial to them until you aren’t. This company does not care about anything else except money. You will not get promoted or grow with this company because there is no growth. Your only pay increase will be if you choose to become a resident at a grade A property or if you are chosen to be assigned to a property. A key training personnel may also get an increase but it’s also not much. The amount of responsibility and expectations they want from you is beyond reach yet are quick to make changes and ask more of you without any actions of appreciation. You will not be appreciated working here

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is completely toxic and unhealthy. The company could care less about the mental stress and mental state you are in. The employees have masks on their face and nepotism is also extremely obvious in the workplace. The environment is at times extremely unprofessional & once again not worth even finding out for yourself 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Answering the phone, making calls to collect payments, calling potential customers, cleaning up other people’s trash, cleaning the property, dealing with difficult customers and rude employees, emailing your superiors about what they want from you, being a maintenance employee for PS at the property, processing payments and taking deposits to bank, going to other properties because of call outs. The list goes on

What is the best part of working at the company?
They do have good benefits that you are eligible for pretty muchrt away! 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They now expect the Property Managers to complete a lock check, which means checking the status of every lock in the facility and entering it into the system, at multiple propertieseach day sling with other tasks. The amount of phone calls to either potential renters, as well as existing ones, for late payments, lien calls, auction calls, and the return calls  are completely rediculous and over kill. They put tons of pressure on you to do so much work from cleaning the facility and units to paperwork and customer service (walk-ins included), and the pay is not worth the stress that comes from it! Residency Property Managers, in other words to get into one of the apartments is not actually free because they reduce your hrly wage and take a bike dollars to if an hr fit that as well as the fact that the apartment positions do not come available that often and they pick the person the feel is just qualified for the hat position. So sometime this been with the finish for a proof if time will definitely get it before you, unless it's a really really bad area, and then again, they have the final say on who gets it of the managers think applied . The rest of the Property Managers are pretty much Relief Managers, but they recently just started calling them ALL just Prooerty Managers! 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It wouldn't be so bad if the company itself did not put so much on the managers. They have found loop holes in having less employees to pay and just putting more work on others, yet paying them then same rate!     

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Clock-in, open (timed) safe, count the petty. Then open the store, which may already have people waiting outside for help. The relentless amount of calls to make. The lock check. Cleaning not only the units needed cleaning, but the whole property. Oh, and from the time someone reserves a unit, during hrs, you have 30 min on smaller properties, 1 hr on larger, to make the first call to them, so no matter the what you are doing at that moment, you are expected to checkin to the office computer to see if any reservations have come in before the 30-60 time frame from your last time you looked! Then if you are at one property in the morning, you leave about 1-1:30 to change issues and start all over again at the second property! All while trying to get in a break and lunch within a limited time. Not so easy when I'm you have customersbat random times needing help! You are so also exoected 3 days a week to do the bank deposits needed for each property need while your there!

Yes, a typical day is coming in, reservation calls, bank deposit, delinquent calls, lock check, cleaning inside office and outside on property, monthly auctions, etc... But the things youre expected to do daily are not worth $9.00 an hour. This is a management position where most of the time you work completely alone so you are directly handling all problems, irate customers and your daily duties that MUST be performed Daily for the same pay you would get working at Wendy's to do less work. You have to compete with your fellow co-workers for an offensively cheap bonus that is not even guaranteed at the end of the year. This Job is all about numbers. Forget trying to contact upper management for any kind of help because you will not receive a response unless it's a problem that is going to lose them a ton of money. It doesn't matter how well you do here because the only thing that's recognized is If you're not doing as well in a certain metric. This Job is very stressful when it comes to being worried about your numbers. The only way to keep them up is to scam people, which most people are not comfortable doing. Upper management seems to think 90+% of people will totally willingly get our bogus insurance and overly expensive lock.or merchandise just by reading a script. No. Yet if your numbers go down its because you didn't try hard enough. They say you're not micromanaged but The DM and or secret shoppers stop by unannounced all The time to hound you. The job itself is not a bad job. The daily duties are not hard. Its the mental strain upper management puts on the employees and the numbers they're never satisfied with. Its the lack of incentive they give employees to go above and beyond because we are not even closely compensated ennough for what we do. One really good property manager does the work load of 2-3 people. Management plays favorites. It doesn't matter how much your tenants love you or how good your attitude is or willingness to improve... Because at the end of the day it's who helps get the DM and above the biggest bonus by having the highest numbers. For a management position we sure do not have the power to make any changes we feel would give the best customer satisfaction. You will also be hounded monthly by your DM about knowing scripts that make you sound phony and robotic. All in all, the job itself can actually be enjoyable if you make good use of your time, but you will receive minimal pay to reach the high standards they set for you. This Job is literally just keeping numbers high and up selling like you've never imagined and still trying to have customers give you a good review on google after you've harassed them.

Where to begin? The job is numbers and metrics driven, the work environment at my location is good, (I'm lucky to work with some great people.) but the pay is laughable at best. The numbers for sales are not realistic. By the time the other options to secure your belongings have been addressed there isn't much money for boxes. I have had customer's put items back by the end of the rental process. In regards to pay, we are drawing up legal documents/contracts and serve as witnesses, we manage the customer's accounts with due diligence when it comes to payments, not to mention the building maintenance to help things run smoothly . These types of jobs, drawing up contracts, dealing with personal information, and collections all separately would offer more money on the hour, but put all these things together and the pay is dismal. I get the sense that this company looks at it's employees as expenses instead of assets. They spend time and money training employees only to loose many within 6 months due to the high demands and the constant conflict that the company creates with it's promotions. Without going into details, most customers are hostile or feel taken advantage of by the lack of information and specifics that are NOT given to them upon making a reservation. With our new system things have gotten worse since little is guaranteed upon making a reservation. Certain requirements are only presented close to the end of the rental process which many customers feel is misleading. I agree, if we are going to require something of someone we should tell them immediately either through the phone call with call center or stated clearly in the pricing summary in the email with online reservations. I personally have been pressured to come to work when I have been ill. I have had difficulty taking my earned vacation time, but that is on a local level with my DM. We are so short staffed that we have to bring in people from other districts to fill in. We are expected to produce numbers so that the DM's can get their bonuses, while our own bonus system has been taken away. There is not much incentive to produce numbers and nothing to heighten morale. The properties could use updating with decent security cameras in more places than the office or a single gate.  Also the fact that the company doesn't promote from within only goes to show that they aren't interested in improving the customer experience, or have any interest in the people who are the face of the company for the customer everyday. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

A typical day at work pretty much looks like this: You get in, count the cash, open the doors, start your calls (you will be doing A LOT of phones calls at this job), clean the bathrooms, do your lock check, do some rentals following a script ( you will need to memorize quite a few scripts for calls and for rentals but in the office you have them printed so no worries), sell merch like your life depends on it during your rental (they do want you to meet numbers), practically beg customers to give you a google review that states your name (if they already have you're encouraged to ask them to write another one for you), clean the property (the go kart can be fun if you have one), go to the bank, clean out and lock up spaces that have been vacated, and then count the cash again, then go home. It's pretty easy and I liked it for the most part however if you don't have the patience nor temper to deal with karens or people who are a bit out of their heads. This won't be for you. If you have mobility issues highly recommend to look elsewhere. There's a lot of up and down; coming and going. You're on the move constantly. My PS district was pretty cliquey and it got a bit dramatic, so that can be a thing. It's a good starter job for people out of HS or are students, but there are a lot of older folks working there usually Property Managers. Its a nice mix. It can get repetitive which is why I left, it was the same thing over and over. You can get an apartment if you become Property Manager. You'll live on site and its a pretty good gig HOWEVER there are certain properties where you have to deal with break ins, suicides (yes, in the spaces), drug addicts, and homeless folks who can be nice but who can also cause problems. AND you will be responsible for kicking them out/ calling the cops and keeping it hush. It's a job for thick skinned folks. You gotta be tough and not let people get under your skin. Just make friends with coworkers, go in and get out. Your DM is not your friend and you will get axed if you push them too much. Even if you've been there for 10+ years. Upper management does not care. Just do your job, go by the book, and keep your head down to survive if you're looking to get promoted up. You will be a therapist, a salesman, a janitor, a banker, a debt collector, a retail worker, an investigator, a pest/rat finder, a security guard, a junk remover, a karen wrangler, and so many other things that goes beyond your scope of practice. But a job is a job is a job. Good luck. 

I woraked for Public Storage in Pensacola Florida for 2 years. The starting salary of $8.50 per hour was tough to live on but I stuck it out to advance to $9.00 per hour. They sell you on the opportunity to make an annual bonus of $3000 but only the top 5% of employees actually achieve this. They set unattainable sales goals expecting you to sell their locKS and insurance to 90% of your rentals. You are also required to sell merchandise to 40% of your rentals. 
The call center creates the reservations from the customers and tells them one price to move in and when they get to the property its more than twice that by the time they have to purchase a lock in insurance. Not to mention the merchandise that you are supposed to sell to 40% of your customers.
The bonus structure is unfair to property managers because the call center gets a monthly bonus for creating reservations and the district managers get a quarterly bonus based on the sales that the property managers do. The property managers get a bonus once a year if they make their goals however you are not notified during the year where you stand as far as if you were get a bonus.
I did not make the proper sales amount to make goals and my district manager never came to me and told me that I did not get a bonus I found out from other coworkers that the bonus had already been paid when I asked my district manager about this she told me that we had had this conversation which we had not.
Also property managers are not allowed to become district managers all hiring for district managers is done from outside the company so there is no opportunity for advancement. This creates a great divide between property managers and district managers because the district manager has never done the property manager job and often comes into the position not knowing anything about what a property manager actually has to do everyday.
On top of sales and rentals are required to maintain the property make bank runs contact all reservations and you are penalized if you do not meet a certain show up percentage when call center representatives are just creating reservations to have them sent over to you when the customer is just calling for prices.
I have wasted 2 years of my work life and wind up with a maximum pay of $9.23 per hour. I would not recommend this company to anyone

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Property manager 4 salaries reported	$9.38 per hour
District manager 2 salaries reported	$116,000 per year
Customer service representative 8 salaries reported	$15.32 per hour
Administrative assistant 10 salaries reported	$1,150 per week
Relief manager 2 salaries reported	$9.00 per hour

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